1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a control device that is connected to a recording device through a communication port, to a control method for this control device, and to a recording medium that records a program for controlling the control device.
2. Related Art
Control devices (information processing devices) that connect to a recording device through a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port or other type of communication port are known from the literature. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2008-293181.
Such control devices have a recording control unit that outputs control commands for controlling the recording device by reading and executing a specific application or printer driver, for example. The control data output by the recording control unit is output to the recording device through the communication port, and the recording device executes the instructed recording operations based on the received control data.
Depending upon the type or specifications of the application or printer driver, some recording control units communicate with the recording device after first occupying the communication port, and continue to occupy the communication port even when not communicating. In this case, a control unit executing another application cannot communicate through the communication port with the recording device while the recording control unit continues occupying the communication port. If a request for the communication port asserted from a control unit executing another application is able to force release of the communication port in order to solve this problem, the recording control unit will be forced to release the communication port, possibly resulting in other problems.